American Modernism

Grant Wood, Spring in the Country, 1941.
James Everett Stuart, Mount Hood, 1916.
Rockwell Kent, Mt Assiniboine, 1952.

Muscular in design, and daring in color. These works of American modernism, can teach a lot about the value of simplifying what you see before you in the landscape, to paint the timeless spirit of a place rather than merely its specific physical appearance.

Norwegian scenes

Some Norwegian painters:

1. Fritz Thaulow
2. Johan Eckersberg
3. Hans Gude
The last image is by Peter Vilhelm Ilsted, who was Danish, but Norway and Denmark were a single kingdom at one stage.

Frederic Edwin Church - Ruins

Fields

Charles Courtney Curran, American, A Breezy Day, 1887
Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, Spanish, Prado de Asturias (Field in Asturias) 1903.


The simplicity of these two works is very attractive: just green and white with a hint of pink to complement.

A few years ago I bought a tube of cinnabar green light by Rembrandt. It's the best colour I have found for sunlit grass. The grass in the lower painting must have been painted with cinnabar or something close to it.

Rembrandt Cinnabar Green Light

AJ Munnings

AJ Munnings (8 October 1878–17 July 1959) is considered one of England's finest equine painters. 

He was an opponent of Modernism, and  the top landscape is probably too bucolic for contemporary tastes, but this is a beautifully composed and executed landscape. By painting the subject with the light coming from behind him, he is able to use the shadows of the animals to bring out their forms.

Susan Downing White

Susan Downing White paints wonderfully poetic evocations of the Gulf Coast of the United States, in a style influenced by 17th century Dutch masters of landscape painting.

Architectural Elements

The abstract design possibilities of architectural elements in the landscape has been explored in previous posts, but here are some more examples.
Contrasting rectilinear and organic, natural and man-made elements, increases visual interest. Though there are no trees in the roofscape, the earthen tiles, with their variegated textures, are a kind of natural element.
Black is rare in nature, but architectural elements give a landscape painter a chance to add some punchy accents to their composition.
Klimt integrates architectural and vegetal elements through pattern and texture.

Top: Alexandra Tyng, Golden, Maine, 28 x 42 inches
Middle: Thomas W. Schaller, Roofs Sienna, watercolour.
Bottom: Klimt, Schloss Kammer